Morse Bluff, Nebraska
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1899 and the latest in 1982. It stands in Morse Bluff Township. It lies in ZIP code area 68648. It lies near Indian Peak. The Survey maps it on the North Bend quadrangle. 117 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,283 feet above sea level.
On record in Morse Bluff
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
Rad Plzen cis. 9 Z.C.B.J. (SD10-6)listed 1986
Population over time
2 figuresMorse Bluff fell from 135 to 117 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 135 | |
| 2020 | 117 | -18 (-13%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 11 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1899 USGS Wahoo quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Fremont quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Fremont quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Fremont quadrangle1:250000
- 1968 USGS North Bend quadrangle1:24000
- 1982 USGS Fremont quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
16 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 16 fires within 5 miles of Morse Bluff between 2000 and 2020, burning about 78 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Equipment and vehicle use | 5 |
| Debris and open burning | 5 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 August 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 26 June 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 28 May 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 4 April 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 30 April 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 17 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 25 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 15 April 2020 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 11 April 2020 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
18 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Morse Bluff in 18 storm reports between 1999 and 2023: 9 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood, 2 flash flood. The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Morse Bluff | 1 hurt | Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated by a NWS storm survey to have reached at least 70 mph, with embedded areas of 100 to 115 mph damage, in a 5 to 7 mile wide swath from west of Cedar Bluffs east and southeast to Highway 77 south of Fremont then through the Woodcliff area. The winds were accompanied by hail up to golf-ball size. The combination of wind and hail damaged crops west of Cedar Bluffs with trees and crops severely damaged from Cedar Bluffs to Woodcliff. A boyscout camp hosting about 1,000 people north of Cedar Bluffs was hit, seriously injuring one parent when a tree fell on him. Center pivots were also flipped from west of Cedar Bluffs east to the county line and some farm outbuilding damage was noted. A semi was flipped on Highway 77 a few miles south of Fremont. In the Woodcliff area the winds appeared to have been the strongest with several boats and boat lifts flipped and many homes sustained damage due to fallen trees. In addition to the tree and subsequent home damage by fallen trees, the wind whipped hail caused additional damage to siding, roofs and vehicles. Around 160 of the 440 homes in the Woodcliff area sustained damage. It was estimated that around 35,000 acres of crops were destroyed in Saunders county, with the plants virtually shredded to the ground in some areas. |
| April 1999 | Tornado (F1) | Morse Bluff | $250,000 | Of the 12 tornadoes reported over eastern Nebraska and southwest Iowa on 4/08/99 this tornado probably caused damage to the most individual buildings. In Morse Bluff, damage was sustained to 10 buildings including one business that was nearly destroyed. This tornado then tracked north/northeast and crossed the Platte River just south of North Bend and then continued into Dodge county causing damage in North Bend before lifting. |
| August 2017 | Flash Flood | Morse Bluff | $50,000 | More than 5 inches of rain fell causing flooding of fields and creeks. |
| July 2008 | Flash Flood | Morse Bluff | $500 | Doppler radar estimated that around 3 inches of rain fell in a several hour or less period near Morse Bluff and this was backed by a public report of 3 inches in one hour. The heavy rain produced flooding which briefly closed a road near Highway 79 in town. Apparent damage was minimal. |
| May 2023 | Hail | Morse Bluff | - | Trained spotter reported 2-inch hail. |
| May 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Morse Bluff | - | Public reported via mPing of 1-inch tree limbs broken; shingles blown off. |
| August 2012 | Hail | Morse Bluff | - | Hail up to 1 inch in diameter covered the ground white a little southeast of Morse Bluff. |
| March 2009 | Flood | Morse Bluff | - | An ice jam about 3/4 mile in length formed about 1 to 2 miles upstream of North Bend. The ice jam caused flooding along the Platte River in the vicinity of McGinns Lake area. The flooding affected just mainly agricultural lowlands in Saunders county with any damage minimal. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Morse Bluff | - | Some large branches were knocked down by thunderstorm winds estimated at 60 mph. |
| February 2007 | Flood | Morse Bluff | - | Ice jams and rising water due to snow melt on the Platte River caused water to flood and very large chunks of ice to be thrown up on the banks along the Platte River from north of Morse Bluff to southeast of Ashland. Water topped a dike in two places Thursday night 2/22-2/23/07 flooding a group of 4 cabins near Wann which is just upstream of the Elkhorn and Platte River confluence. Another cabin in the area received extensive damage as a local levee was topped. The Cedar Lakes area near Cedar Bluffs also experienced significant flooding due to a 3/4 mile long ice jam near that area. In addition to the homes and cabins that were flooded or surrounded by water, some county roads were closed in the area. |
| July 2006 | Hail | Morse Bluff | - | Hail up to 1 inch in diameter was accompanied by thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 50 mph. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Morse Bluff | - | A few large limbs downed. |
| August 2018 | Hail | Morse Bluff | - | no account filed |
| May 2015 | Hail | Morse Bluff | - | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Hail | Morse Bluff | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Morse Bluff | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Morse Bluff | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Morse Bluff | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rescue (historical) | 8.2 miles | 11 | |
| Cedar Bluffs | 8.6 miles | 12 | |
| Prague | 8.7 miles | 11 | |
| Malmo | 11.7 miles | 11 | |
| Colon | 12.6 miles | 11 | |
| Woodcliff | 16.0 miles | 16 | |
| Weston | 16.5 miles | 11 | |
| Wahoo | 17.1 miles | 12 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Morse Bluff | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2044499 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 831431. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.





